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If there was any doubt that traditional satellite and cable plans are on the decline, earlier this year, cord cutting hit an all-time high after more than one million subscribers ditched their services in just one quarter. The news comes from telecom research firm MoffettNathanson, which examined Q3 earnings reports from all the major providers…
Eight cryptocurrency machines reportedly drained electricity from a Chinese high school for nearly a year before the headmaster was busted, and later fired, for running an Ethereum-mining operation. A school employee had attempted to alert headmaster Lei Hua about the excessive use of electricity, but Hau reportedly blamed it on the heaters and air conditioners,…
A decade before Adolf Hitler rose to power in Germany, famed physicist Albert Einstein was already sensing imminent peril for his country and his own welfare, as a newly discovered letter reveals. As reported by the Associated Press, the previously unknown letter was recently brought forward by an anonymous collector. The handwritten note, dated August…
No one will ever say there’s too much Planet Earth. Sir David Attenborough, the voice of some of the greatest nature documentaries ever, has almost exclusively spent his career at the BBC. But on Thursday, Netflix announced that it has successfully delivered a big enough dump truck filled with money to sign the 92-year-old broadcaster…
Watching a six-minute YouTube video is a lot to ask when the internet serves up bite-size snippets of entertainment requiring just a few seconds of your attention. But close-up magician Eric Chien manages to squeeze so many impossible tricks into his World Championships of Magic-winning routine, you actually might wish it went on for a…
I have a lot of Apple-hating friends who are always asking me: “What’s the best Wear OS smartwatch?” And I always say the same thing: They’re all bad. That said, the Fossil Sport could be the first contender for the title. Why’s that? Right now, the Sport is the only Android watch besides the Montblanc…
A selection of work and belongings of the late theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking snatched hundreds of thousands of dollars per item at a recent Christie’s auction. Among the items sold were his motorized red leather wheelchair and a copy of his doctoral thesis Properties of Expanding Universes—one of five known copies—which sold for 296,750 pounds…
A former Tesla employee was charged by a federal grand jury today of embezzling roughly $9.3 million from Elon Musk’s electric car company over the course of two years. The indictment comes as the result of an FBI inquiry. The employee, 32-year-old Salil Parulekar, allegedly engaged in a scheme that involved diverting payments, falsifying invoices,…
Last week, thousands of Google staffers walked out of their offices and into the streets in what is perhaps the largest collective protest of tech workers in history. The demonstration, which included Google offices across several continents, was sparked by reports that the company offered lucrative exit packages to multiple top executives accused of sexual…
Scientists say the finding should be a call-to-action to secure our technology against solar flares.
During a company-wide meeting today, Amazon addressed its relationship with law enforcement agencies, including Immigrations Customs and Enforcement—its first direct response to employee concerns raised in June about the company’s often successful attempts to provide cloud infrastructure and facial recognition software for these government authorities. According to two current Amazon workers, questions for today were…
The Nintendo Switch is getting an official YouTube app starting today. By adding support for YouTube, the number of streaming video services on the Switch now stands at three, following the Japan-only NicoNico app, which arrived shortly after the Switch’s release, and the Hulu app that launched on the Switch almost exactly a year ago…
On Thursday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai sent an email to all employees promising a number of changes to the company’s policies following last week’s massive walkout. Many of these changes addressed the demands made by the walkout organizers, including optional arbitration for sexual harassment and assault claims and an improved reporting process for sexual misconduct.…
If you’ve ever listened to an Apple hater rant about why Macs suck, chances are you’ve heard those “You can’t repair or upgrade it yourself!” arguments. But with the new MacBook Air and Mac mini, Apple seems like it’s ready to toss Mac diehards a small, but welcome bone. iFixit’s teardown of the 2018 Air…
A motivational guru from the Netherlands, who voiced a villainous Zaporozhets supermini in the Dutch-language version of Pixar’s Cars 2, is trying to legally change his birthday so he will face less discrimination, including from potential online romantic prospects. “When I’m on Tinder and it says I’m 69, I don’t get an answer. When I’m…
The White House doesn’t want us to believe what we’re seeing, so they’re showing us things that are unbelievable. On Wednesday, President Trump was in a foul mood and decided to hold an impromptu news conference that lasted nearly 90 minutes. A lot of weird things happened, and Trump was clearly feeling defensive about losing…
Surprise! Apple decided to go with USB-C charging for its latest batch of iPad Pros, which means… well, what exactly does it mean? Whether you’re putting down some cash for one of the new Apple slates or you’ve already got a USB-C device in your life, here’s how the emerging technology works and exactly what…
Cockatoos have once again demonstrated that birds have surprisingly advanced toolmaking abilities—particularly when delicious cashews are involved. Just last month, one team found that New Caledonian crows, the well-known toolmakers, could build tools from multiple components in order to extend their reach. Now, other researchers have found that one species of cockatoo, not previously known…
A lot of interesting ballot measures were taken up by voters on Tuesday but none of them were more curious than Florida’s Amendment 9. The successful ballot item actually amends Florida’s constitution to ban offshore drilling and vaping in indoor workplaces. But why were those two things bundled together? As you may be aware, Florida…
The U.S. Air Force published a video overnight showing its latest missile test from Tuesday. But the Air Force insists that the test is “not related to any real world events.” The unarmed Minuteman 3 intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California at 11:01pm local time on Tuesday. The…
